Not in my back ocean!

Well sure. There are some great corners out there, but those panhandlers are the top of the panhandling food chain. We've all seen that expose where they follow a panhandler home in his BMW to the suburbs.

Most though... ...they make about $8/hr (tax free - or at least unreported). That's enough to score a room to share with your other gutterpunk friends and score some more heroin.

Maybe I was unclear - we have an engineering team of about 15 people, 5 of whom work at standing desks. It's not required.

I do development and I work a standing desk (and for a couple of years did a walking desk when I worked at home). I'm actually vastly more comfortable not just at work now but in the rest of my life since switching:

- issues I had with sciatica went away
- I am in better shape/have more endurance & energy
- I sleep better
- I used to feel like shit if I went on a 10 hour coding binge (sluggish and exhausted) but now I just feel pretty much normal

It's only uncomfortable at first, but once you figure out good shoes to wear, good anti-fatigue mats to use and good posture it's much MUCH more comfortable (at least in my experience) and makes your non-work life better as well.

At my office we have 5 people in our engineering team (some IT, some developers) who use standing desks and a few more who are considering making the switch. The oldest stander is me (42) so it's not just something 20-somethings can do.

I completely understand your points, but let me offer a few things:

Shit like this happens to people every single day. Often vastly worse; I volunteered with an organization that sought clemency for people who were wrongly convicted and imprisoned (and in the US that means being subjected to some truly horrific shit). Yet, by and large, despite being completely fucked over by the system and having had years - sometimes decades - of their lives taken away, despite being tortured by beatings, rapes, solitary confinement, these people didn't lose their shit and go on a killing spree. They kept their shit together. My point here is that people get fucked over and there are ways of dealing with it, and sometimes things get handled and sometimes they don't, and you need to move along and get past it.

But, as you say, that takes perspective. Which gets me to my next point: The kid himself may not have perspective, but his parents sure as hell should. Or some other adult. Someone should have sat him down and explained that he was right, the people in power were assholes, and that while he probably is plenty pissed about how it all went down, in the grand scheme of things it's just a run in with assholes, and he's better than that. It is the job of parents not just to teach kids how to not be assholes, but how to deal with the fact that assholes exist and they will try to fuck up your life.

I definitely agree that dealing with bullying needs to be handled better not just because it's the right thing, but because it's an immediate safety issue and letting it keep going perpetuates a culture that accepts it. The problem is that school administrators are short sighted in this country (actually, pretty much everyone involved in public education in this country is extremely short sighted), and they want to maintain control with a minimum amount of hassle.

When I switched from working in an office to working from home for a couple of years, I went to a standing desk and then to a treadmill/walking desk.

Took me about 3 days to get used to standing all the time - as in, able to do it without feeling too much pain in my feet at the end of the day.

The walking desk took about a week to get used to, at first I could only read emails etc. while walking, but after I got used to things I was able to do 4MPH indefinitely while doing basic stuff, and about 2.5MPH while doing stuff that required a bit more precision with a mouse etc. Put it at a 5% incline and it's not a bad workout. My best day was 20 miles.

I wound up losing some weight - 10 lbs. - which wasn't strictly necessary but wasn't a bad thing. My productivity took a hit at the beginning but got back to normal after the first couple of weeks. My energy level went up dramatically after the first month and my general sense of well-being was much improved. Even better, issues I was having with sciatica went away and I would sleep much better.

At my current job I am at a standing desk all day and while it's not nearly as active as my walking desk, it's still working for me.

Some research suggests that it isn't that much better for you (or at all better for you) than a sitting desk, but my personal experience defies that; I'd recommend trying it for a month - commit to it - and see how it works for you.

I've spent maybe $5 on cards. And saved close to $50 using the coupons I've gotten from crafting steam badges. Granted some of the coupons were for games I would never buy or wont run on Linux, but I can trade those with friends.

Haven't you ever noticed that plenty of retired people "never have time" when you ask them to do something ? They are always busy doing things. Well, not all of them, but those who had an active life and maintain it afterwards. Between fixing the house, the garden, building things, antique stores, ebay, hiking/biking around, etc...

...and in a couple more decades, we'll be done decriminalizing it.

Except in Alabama, because Jesus.

Give samzenpus a break. It's not like he's an editor of a large new aggregation site or anything.

An open letter to you and the smoking homeless:

Stop smoking, idiot.

Yours in FSM,
mythosaz

Actually nothing says, "I'm stupid" like smoking.

I've never, ever, been shocked to see a homeless man smoking a cigarette. No money for a razor and shampoo again today, but hey, American Spirit!

Heroin I understand. :/

That headline and your a ref= are astonishingly sensationalist.

Over 5-6 years, Nevada offered bus tickets (home?) to former mental patients without providing good enough post-care documentation for them. They went to 47 of the 47 possible states you can take a bus to without a passport. They went at a rate of 250 a year, and, in total 24 of them ended up in SF over those 5-6 years.

There's no direct evidence that those 24 ended up homeless, or were even homeless! ...just that the some of them then availed themselves of state medical care and shelter.

In summary -- liar, liar, pants on fire.

Well, 100% of it goes to the homeless guy, but based on your own description, it sounds like none of it does any good.

At least the 30% in the collection box might go to permanent solutions, halfway houses, transition solutions, job training and education, etc.

Also fewer and fewer people know the difference between less and fewer.